The fields are public land but use is subject to the approval of Davis AYSO, who licenses and manages the property.

This property was originally set aside to be an elementary school site as a part of the original Wildhorse development. The Davis Joint Unified School District had a time limit in which they had to build a school on the site, or the property would revert to the developer. A school was not needed in this area (Birch Lane Elementary is close by), and the school district would have lost the property. Paul Deering, in conjunction with the Davis Sports Foundation, proposed that the development agreement be altered in a multi-party agreement between the City of Davis, the Wildhorse developer, the Davis Joint Unified School District and the Davis Sports Foundation. In return for a moderately accelerated build out of the Wildhorse development, the developer would turn the property over to the City of Davis along with $300,000. The City of Davis would then hand the property over to the Davis Joint Unified School District with an understanding that the property would not be sold for six years, and that it would be licensed to the Davis Sports Foundation to be developed into soccer fields for that period of time. The City of Davis was to provide half of the $300,000 to the Davis Sports Foundation to build the fields, with the rest going to the City open space fund. At the last minute the City of Davis changed the agreement so that the full $300,000 would go to the open space fund.

The Davis Sports Foundation raised fees to build and maintain the soccer fields. Construction costs were kept low by the generous donation of time from a variety of Davis businesspeople, organizations and community members. Davis AYSO and the Davis Youth Soccer League contributed to the construction and maintenance of the property. Nugget Market contributed significant funds to the annual maintenance of the facility.

The original concept of the project was that it would be an "interim" facility that would be used as a stopgap to fulfill a shortage of soccer fields in town until a more permanent sports facility could be built. However, due to the efforts of the youth soccer groups and the Davis Sports Foundation the facility became an extremely important part of the Davis youth soccer community. In addition, plans for a permanent sports facility have been delayed significantly, so a replacement for these fields has not yet been developed.

As part of the now defunct Covell Village proposal, the Fields would have been purchased by the Covell Village Partners from DJUSD for $4 million and developed for community use. In exchange, the school district would have received 10 acres of land within Covell Village (source). The agreement between the Davis Sports Foundation (DSF) and the school district (DJUSD) was set to expire in the spring of 2006, and because of this, some stated that it is "unclear what may happen to the fields if Measure X does not succeed." However, according to Councilmember Stan Forbes, it would not be politically possible for the school district to sell the fields — all school board members who approved such a sale would lose their next election. This statement has been disputed by others.

In 2007 the DJUSD convened an advisory committee to discuss the future of the site. Following the recommendation of the 7/11 committee, the DJUSD school board declared the site surplus, and solicited neighborhood input on potential future uses of the site. At this time the site is still considered surplus property and it can be disposed of with only short notice to the organizations using the facility.

The license agreement between the Davis Joint Unified School District and the Davis Sports Foundation was extended several times, but in 2008 it was determined that the agreement could not be continued due to limitations placed on the facility by state law (the "Naylor Act"). However, two new agreements were developed in the 2008-2009 timeframe that allow for the continued use of the facility by youth soccer groups. First, the City of Davis, Yolo County and the Davis Joint Unified School District agreed that the City and County would waive their Naylor Act rights to acquire a portion of the property, in return the Davis Joint Unified School District would allow the continued use of the property for a period of several years. Later, the City and the Davis Joint Unified School District reached an agreement whereby the City of Davis would take over the license of the site from the Davis Sports Foundation, and then in turn sub-license the site to Davis AYSO. The primary reason for this second agreement was to reduce the significant costs of maintaining the site under the original agreement.

The results of these two final agreements are that the fields continue to be used by youth soccer groups until the time that the Davis Joint Unified School District decides that it is time to sell the property for development. The Davis Joint Unified School District can dispose of the property with 90 days advance notice. In addition, the agreement reduces the cost of maintaining the site (annual costs had doubled since it was originally built). The Davis Sports Foundation no longer manages the site - that has been taken over by Davis AYSO. Subsequent to this agreement the Davis Sports Foundation was dissolved.

Comments:

2010-07-09 20:23:54 The grass at nugget fields is so nice. Does anyone know the breed/species/brand of grass? —adborowsky

2011-09-02 13:16:13 I just moved to Davis, close to Nugget Field, and my girlfriend loves to play soccer, but to our dismay, the goals in the soccer field are kept locked together, so they can't be used. This is very disappointing. Does anyone know why this is done? —kevinhawkins